The VISIBLE MARS BAR Project

by Nick Vagnoni, Posted Feb 20th 2006 @ 3:03PM

I've always been intrigued by regional differences in seemingly standard food. The trans-Atlantic variations in Mars bars was not something I'd pondered, however. Until now. According to the folks at U.K.-based Temple of thee Lemur, the Mars bars we have here in the States pale in comparison to the British ones. TotL's The VISIBLE MARS BAR Project aims to educate readers on the differences between American and British Mars bars, with a tasting of Milky Way bars thrown in for good measure. A series of cross-sections of each bar is about as scientific as the analysis gets. One can clearly see that the American version has almonds and the British version does not. Fascinating. TotL's one-man tasting panel rates the British Mars above the American ones, but our Milky Way bars appear to best the U.K. version.

Filed Under: Raves & Reviews, Ingredients, Tastings
Tags: america, american, british, british isles, candy, chocolate, differences, mars bar, MarsBar, milky way, temple ov thee lemur

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-20-2006 @3:52PM Tony said... I love the internet!
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2-20-2006 @5:57PM Alyson said... The same goes for Cadbury chocolate bars. The UK ones are so much better.
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2-20-2006 @7:31PM Anthony said... "One can clearly see that the American version has peanuts and the British version does not."

Umm... The wrapper says it is an almond bar. The American version has almonds in it, not peanuts. If it had peanuts in it, that would make it a Snicker's bar. Yes, I know that the peanuts are on top of the nougat in a Snicker's and the almonds are inside the nougat in a Mars. But it would still really be a Snicker's and not a Mars if it had peanuts.
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2-20-2006 @9:17PM Nick said... Sorry, that was my mistake. I meant almonds, not peanuts.
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2-21-2006 @12:15AM Adam Fields said... The American Mars bar has no British analogue, as far as I know. The British Mars bar is identical to the American Milky Way. There is also a British Milky Way, which is something totally different, and which actually tastes like milk.
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2-21-2006 @4:19AM soco said... upon coming to Europe a few years ago, we began to notice the difference here. the relationship between the Mars bar, the Milky Way, Three Muskateers. in theory, they should all be similar once you get past the naming difference, but experience with Oreos, has taught me that they're often not made from the same ingredients. for example, the European version of Oreos contain whey, while the american versions do not.
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2-21-2006 @5:54PM cybele said... There is no such thing as an American Mars bar any longer. The old Mars bar was almonds in nougat with caramel enrobed in chocolate. That was discontinued and relaunched as Snickers Almond.

Check out this post I did late last year that lists the different international versions of Mars products.

http://www.typetive.com/candyblog/item/snickers_almond

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